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Topic Review (Newest First)

04-14-2003 11:17 AM

Anonymous

DONT USE THE SOIL. Trust me I have it in my tank, its great if you dont want to replant or move your plants alot. You dont really need it and can acheive equal success with out adding soil or anything but fertilizer to your gravel bed. Dont use the soil, its a pain in the arse.

04-11-2003 03:55 PM

digger

Stat is right. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is much higher than what we have dissolved in our fish tanks, otherwise our tanks would look like a can of Coca-cola. A good rule of thumb for fishtanks is 15 ppm (.0015%) of CO2, the atmosphere is about .035 % CO2. The pressure of the water drives the CO2 out of sollution, so we increase the contact of the CO2 with the water.

04-11-2003 01:37 PM

IceWish

Thanx for all your reply guyz.........and you really made me understand it Tim...
I saw a post once where you can modify your power filter so it doesnt aggitate the water as much...involves some plexi glass..I think ill try it.The soil i got is blackish....ill go ahead and mix it in some sand or that thing you suggested that i never heard of..Thanx guyz ill keep you posted...I think ill start a Photo diary too.

04-11-2003 04:46 AM

STAT 007

Quote:

Originally Posted by SNPiccolo5

Air (what we breath), contains many different gases, nitrogen being the most (I am pretty sure). It also has oxygen and CO2, among many MANY other gases. Water can hold dissolved gases, but only to a certain amount. These dissolved gases want to be in equilibrium (have the same amount as) with the gases outside the water. If water has less CO2 than the air around it, by aerating (sp?) you will increase CO2, but if it has more CO2, then you will lose CO2. Aerating water insures that the water in our aquarium at least has an equal amount of oxygen as the atmosphere. This level is content for fish, but the level of CO2 in equilibrium is not content for plants. So, if you are adding CO2, when you aerate, the CO2 escapes the water in order to be in equilibrium with the air. If you get the idea of equilibrium, it makes sense...

Well I may be wrong here and I realize it doesn't help that I started off my last post saying, "I don't really know what I'm talking about, but...", but I would think that the atmosphere always has more CO2 in it than even an aquarium with injected CO2. I mean, after all, look at how wonderfully terrestrial plants (trees) do--no CO2 shortage! Like I said though, I could be wrong...

04-11-2003 12:26 AM

corvus

I mentioned this before, I did the garden soil, in a 45 high. That tank does well, but slow growth.

Substrate: 5 gallon bucket, 2/3 soil, 1/3rd peat. made sticky mud, mixed in peat like kneading dough. Got 2 inches of this on the bottom, covered with quartz pea gravel. couple days to settle out the particles, and now i don't like making changes, the water clouds when digging up, but it CAN be done. My soil is clayish, kinda red. Initial algae problems, but doesn't everyone? My high tech tank had more algae problems than this, at first.

regular double strip 48" shoplite over it, too long so less than 2 wpg. no Co2 either. low light plants love this tank!

04-10-2003 10:11 PM

SNPiccolo5

That is an interesting way of saying it STAT, but let me see....

Air (what we breath), contains many different gases, nitrogen being the most (I am pretty sure). It also has oxygen and CO2, among many MANY other gases. Water can hold dissolved gases, but only to a certain amount. These dissolved gases want to be in equilibrium (have the same amount as) with the gases outside the water. If water has less CO2 than the air around it, by aerating (sp?) you will increase CO2, but if it has more CO2, then you will lose CO2. Aerating water insures that the water in our aquarium at least has an equal amount of oxygen as the atmosphere. This level is content for fish, but the level of CO2 in equilibrium is not content for plants. So, if you are adding CO2, when you aerate, the CO2 escapes the water in order to be in equilibrium with the air. If you get the idea of equilibrium, it makes sense...

Now, about your soil... do you know if it has lots of fertilizers or anything? You should mix it with some vermiculite and sand and possibly some other stuff, ask Gdominy about it, he just set up a tank with this type of substrate. Good luck.

-Tim

04-10-2003 09:44 PM

STAT 007

Quote:

Originally Posted by IceWish

...why is it that co2 escapes and o2 enters when the water is exposed to air....Why isnt it the other way around..does it have something to do with the gases....or is it just the same?...doesnt C02 like the water???

This might not be exactly right, so everyone else feel free to [kindly] correct me if I'm wrong. But the way I understand it is that both (all) gasses are driven off with surface agitation. However, fish only need air (not pure oxygen) to breathe and as you increase surface agitation, you also put a bunch of air INTO the water (as you also drive other air off). So there's a whole bunch of air for the fish to breathe, which is cool. The plants however, don't do so well breathing just air from the water. Instead, pure CO2 is much better for the plants so a surplus of air (being created by an airstone or other form of surface agitation) doesn't do them any good and in fact it causes loss of the vital CO2 that you're injecting yourself and that they very much need. Again, if this isn't correct, feel free to chime in, folks. 8)

04-10-2003 03:09 PM

IceWish

I guess i just went out in my garden which is really big and found a nice spot and started diging into a bucket, its still in the bucket so tell me before i put it in...what should i use?
I have a little question as well....why is it that co2 escapes and o2 enters when the water is exposed to air....Why isnt it the other way around..does it have something to do with the gases....or is it just the same?...doesnt C02 like the water???

04-10-2003 12:02 AM

SNPiccolo5

Quote:

In place of the flourite i decided to use normal garden soil and gravel with some plant sticks

Uuuuhh, you didn't actually use "garden" soil... did you? Garden soil is probably a lot too rich for a planted tank. Did you mix it with vermiculite or any sand or something? What type of soil did you use?

-Tim

04-09-2003 06:22 PM

fishpoop

if you can't find a good filter then go with a good co2 system b/c the pressure co2 will be able to handle the wisper but it will take alot of work with diy for a heavly planted aquarium that size with a lot of surface agitation from the filter. diy co2 is not that expsive b/c you can keep the reactor when you switch to a pressure system. so go ahead andd try the diy first but i dont think you'll get enough co2
Good Luck

04-09-2003 03:06 PM

IceWish

Ok so my 4ft aquarium is almost up..I have had some major problems i had to deal with....You just cant find good equipment down here in Trinidad.For lighting im not sure how much watts it is , i had limited space so i put in 6 18" and one 2" grow lite...my tank looks kinda red though....No one ever heard of Flourite and i can t find a good external filter.In place of the flourite i decided to use normal garden soil and gravel with some plant sticks ...The filter is the problem ... i wanna have alotta plants but im worried that too much Co2 will escape with one of those hang on canister filter...and that seems to be my only option....The Wisper power Filter 3 (up to 75g...and the tetraTec Living filter or some crap like that )http://www.tetra-fish.com/tour/virtualtour.html
Is it that big of a deal because im planning on using a DIY Co2 system...